I've played many RTS games, and the one this was most evident in was BFME and I was very impressed by it. It takes realism to a whole new level, and surprisingly, many RTS' just don't implement it, or not as obviously. What I mean by start and stop motions is those of the units; when they begin to, say march, then they won't just go from standing motion to walking, but rather, they will transition from one phase to another, making it seamless and more realistic. Now let's look at stopping with the example of horsemen. When horsemen are commanded to move from one location to another, in, say AOE3, they will come to the location and just abruptly stop. In BFME however, the horsemen will skid to a halt a few metre (or milimetre from our view) from the location stopping right where they were commanded.

So, my question is, will this be implemented, and if so, to what degree? Are there any videos that demonstrate this?

Sorry if this question has been answered elsewhere.

Thanks in advance.

Andy Joslin

05-03-2009 08:27 AM

I doubt this will be implemented. It would take many animation resources and I'd guess a lot of time to code, time which we don't really have an abundance of for a non-required feature such at this.

raving

05-03-2009 08:59 AM

sounds cool tho :D, i think i have bfme laying around here somewhere what ur saying never noticed me >

LiTos456

05-03-2009 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy Joslin
(Post 13811)

I doubt this will be implemented. It would take many animation resources and I'd guess a lot of time to code, time which we don't really have an abundance of for a non-required feature such at this.

That would be a fairly fantastic feature, though it's so small.
It's what I didn't like about SAGA. Although its a bit different, but say, I pointed him to go there, but he goes straight and then sharply turns and goes straight to where I told him to. Just that made me uninstall the game.

The_Biz

05-03-2009 01:10 PM

and what if you interrupt an animation to do something else?

units should respond immediately for a multiplayer game

LiTos456

05-03-2009 06:59 PM

To be honest if you interrupt something and say make the rider go all the way around he can turn straight around while performing a turn around animation. For example, the horse's feet spring up and it turns around on it's back feet and then goes on. Wouldn't be too time consuming, although it might be a bit of a tough cookie to animate and code. So I guess that's not required, but at least the regular start/stop animations would be more than nice....

Joseph Visscher

05-03-2009 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LiTos456
(Post 13833)

Wouldn't be too time consuming, although it might be a bit of a tough cookie to animate and code.

(No Sarcasm or negative emotion) Have any of you even have a slightest idea of Inverse Trigonometric Functions just to name just a few of the instrumental coding and mathematics needed to even start implementing into pathfinding alone; Do not underestimate time, for time is older than us all.

Anyways, odds are we most likely will have turning times for bigger units and Calvary, and we might have Animation Blending which seamlessly blends from 1 animation to the next. This all depends what system resources these take and what we are willing to Sacrifice when it comes to army size, population, map size, and general performance>gameplay.

I have a question for fyro11:
How many units on screen have you seen fight at once in Battle for Middle Earth?
My guess would be around 200 or less without major lag...

Grizzlez

05-04-2009 11:31 AM

As long as units such as horses don't do the immediate direction change i'll be happy, i'd rather have them make a slight rotation around to change direction. Would also change the gameplay so people can't just unrealistically run in another direction without being punished for it. After all this is a war game and it shouldn't be too easy to retreat from.

LiTos456

05-04-2009 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joseph Visscher
(Post 13834)

(No Sarcasm or negative emotion) Have any of you even have a slightest idea of Inverse Trigonometric Functions just to name just a few of the instrumental coding and mathematics needed to even start implementing into pathfinding alone; Do not underestimate time, for time is older than us all.

Anyways, odds are we most likely will have turning times for bigger units and Calvary, and we might have Animation Blending which seamlessly blends from 1 animation to the next. This all depends what system resources these take and what we are willing to Sacrifice when it comes to army size, population, map size, and general performance>gameplay.

I have a question for fyro11:
How many units on screen have you seen fight at once in Battle for Middle Earth?
My guess would be around 200 or less without major lag...

Also, I meant not time consuming as the animation animating itself. The coding will of course take time.